Brown creeper

“ Frequently, too, a brown creeper would be seen hitching up the trunk or over the larger limbs. He likes pleasant society, though he has little to say, and perhaps found scraps of suet in the crevices of the bark, where the chickadees, who are given to this kind of providence, may have packed it in store. Somewhat less frequently a goldcrest would come with the others, fluttering amid the branches like a sprite. One bird draws another, especially in hard times. ”

“ The Creeper is admirably adapted to its ways of life. Its bill is formed for obtaining its insect food, and its tail supports it while climbing.
The Brown Creeper nests in early summer, when insect life is most abundant, and, like the Woodpecker, prefers a hole for the purpose. This it lines with dry grass, moss and feathers, and makes a very warm and comfortable home. The eggs are from five to eight, white, spotted and speckled with red. The Creeper is not migratory, and we see it in the woods throughout the year. It is hardy and lives sumptuously the winter through. ”

“ The little bird known as the brown creeper belongs to a different avicular family entirely, but in one respect he is like the black-and-white warbler—that is, he scales the trunks and branches of the trees. There, however, the resemblance ceases, for the creeper rarely goes head downward, evidently thinking that the proper position for a bird's head is pointing toward the sky, not toward the ground. Besides, he seldom, if ever, sits crosswise on a perch ”

“ A downy woodpecker with the red spot on his hind head and his cassock open behind, showing his white robe, kept up an incessant loud tapping on another pitch pine. All at once, an active little brown creeper makes its appearance, a small, rather slender bird with a long tail and sparrow-colored back, and white beneath. It commences at the bottom of a tree and glides up very rapidly, then suddenly darts to the bottom of a new tree, and repeats the same movement, not resting long in one place, or on one tree. ”

“ One of our regular visitors twice a year is the brown creeper. He is so small and silent, and withal his color is so like that of the bark to which he clings, that I suspect he is seldom noticed even by persons who pass within a few feet of him. ”

“ Like the Brown Creeper, this bird has a faint lisping call which usually is given in a series of from one to 3 notes, not the single note of the creeper.
They often feed in low bushes or shrubs, sometimes on the ground and seem to have little fear of man and will permit a close inspection. When feeding high in the trees, their small size gives you a clue to their identity. ”

“ As soon as the hooded warbler appears we will see the black and white creeping warbler, the connecting link (so to speak) between the creepers and warblers in both appearance and habits. Like our common brown creeper, he loves the dense woods, but unlike him seems to prefer the tops and higher branches. Alternate patches and streaks of white and black without a suggestion of the yellow or olive green so characteristic of his genus make his identification easy. His note is simple and short; in fact the sounds that he emits in his journeys are scarcely worth being called a song. ”

“ They are extremely active, in fact, fully as much so as the little Brown Creeper itself. Like it, they suddenly leave the uppermost branches or higher parts of the trunks, and diving downwards alight on the roots, and renew their search after small insects and larvæ. I never saw any of them pursue insects on wing.
The nest of this species is prettily constructed. Its outer parts are composed of grey lichens and soft mosses, the interior of silky substances and a few fibres of the Spanish moss. The female lays four pure white eggs, having two or three purple dots near the larger end. ”

“ In late fall this band is often joined by the golden-crowned kinglet and the brown creeper. The kinglet is finer-eyed and finer-billed than even the chickadee, and no doubt gathers what the latter overlooks, while the brown creeper, with his long, slender, curved bill, takes what both the nuthatch and the woodpecker miss. Working together, it seems as if they must make a pretty clean sweep. But the trees are numerous and large, and the birds are few. Only a mere fraction of tree surface is searched over at any one time. ”

“ Then, there is the little brown creeper which never perches and is forever creeping, creeping, upward, upward—save, of course, when it takes to wing—and yet its toes are arranged in the normal percher style, the hind digit having an especially long, curved claw. It is a mistake to suppose that all the problems of the bird world have been solved. ”

“ Certhia familiaris montana Ridgway.—Miller (1955a:169) reported this subspecies of the Brown Creeper, which he assumed to be a winter visitant or a migrant, in the Sierra del Carmen. He (loc. cit.) remarked also that the higher conifers would seem to constitute favorable habitat for nesting by the Brown Creeper, but did not find any evidence of a breeding population of creepers in the Sierra del Carmen. Miller, Friedmann, Griscom, and Moore (1957:143) reported C. f. montana from San Lázaro Mountain on November 9.
**Certhia familiaris albescens Berlepsch.—Specimens examined: total 3: sex ? ”

“ Tree-trunks, which are carefully inspected by these industrious birds.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds from Nebraska, Indiana, the mountains of North Carolina and Massachusetts north to southern Canada; also in the mountains of western North America from Alaska to Nicaragua; winters over most of its range.
The Brown Creeper should inherit the earth, for he is one of the most perfect examples of meekness that may be found. Small, slight, self-effacing, untiring in his work, he reminds one of a quiet industrious person who performs unremittingly small tasks that amount to a large total. ”

“ Unlike the Chickadees and Nuthatches, who also are partial to the woods, they very rarely descend to 134 the ground to either hop about or hunt for food. Nor do they, like the two former birds, ever hang to a limb with their heads downward.
Still the Brown Creeper seems to be constantly in activity, and hunts most diligently for the insects it feeds upon. This it does somewhat in the manner of the Woodpecker, by clinging to the trunks or branches of trees, supporting itself by its stiff tail-feathers and thus moving about quite securely.
THE BROWN CREEPER.
They are very methodical. ”

“ The Downy Woodpecker 'hitches' himself upward advancing by jerks; the Brown Creeper, true to its name, creeps. The nest is built on the ground and the white, brown-marked eggs are laid in April in the South, in May in the North. [93]
PROTHONOTARY WARBLER
Protonotaria citrea. Case 5, Fig. 29
The female is duller than the male, but is too like him to be mistaken for the mate of any other Warbler, while he is in a class by himself. ”

“ I have seen this species more times than any other this month—of course, excepting the common Sparrow.
On nearing our 'hunting-grounds,' we heard the familiar 'cree-e' of a Brown Creeper, and soon discovered the little fellow hard at work, as usual. A little later we came upon the beautiful Cardinal, with his two wives. It is a fact that there are one male and two - 58 - females, though probably only one is his real mate. ”

“ The creeper is not easy to find. He is so wonderfully protected by his dull brown feathers that he looks more like an animated lichen than a bird. His nest is a cleverly camouflaged affair, tucked behind loose bark and often containing eight whitish eggs about the size of beans. ”

“ It may be the creeper’s, for although he seems an unsocial fellow, seldom flocking with birds of his own kind, he is fond of the chickadee’s cheerful companionship.
BROWN CREEPER
1. Male. 2. Female
To see him and hear his zeep, you would never take him for a songster; but there is no telling by the looks of a bird how well he can sing. In [13] fact, plainly dressed birds are, as a rule, the best musicians. The very handsome ones have no need to charm with the voice. And our modest little creeper has a song, and a fairly good one ”

“ The jungle is as ugly as it can be, rank undergrowth, trailing rattans and scraggy rotting trees. In forty miles I do not think there are half a dozen big trees worth looking at. Very occasionally you see a flowering creeper, one with clusters of white flowers is here and there, and I have seen a few of the gorgeous flaming D’Albertis creeper (Mucuna pruriens) . Butterflies are seldom seen and birds one hardly hears at all. The banks are steep slimy brown mud, littered with the trunks and limbs of rotten trees, which also stick up all over the river like horrid muddy bones. ”

“ Numerous warblers chirped in the tree-tops, or swung out on the upbuoying air to catch some ill-fated insect on the wing; and although I could not identify many of them, I felt no annoyance, as I had at other times, for I could truly “rejoice with those that do rejoice,” because I had no sorrow of my 219 own to distract my mind. I could have forgiven almost any trick a bird had seen fit to play me. The brown creeper, just from his haunt in some primeval forest of British America, went hitching up a tree-bole in his own quaint way without even the courtesy of a friendly how-d’-you-do ”

“ The nest of the whitethroat is a round, flimsy structure, formed of slender stalks of grass and herbs, and lined with horsehair, and is placed two or three feet above the ground, in the brambles and briers of the hedge, or in a large furze-bush. The five eggs are of a greenish white, speckled with olive, and sometimes blotched and marked with grey and light brown. One brood only is reared. [66] Nettle-creeper is a common name for this bird, on account of its love of weeds, especially of nettles, no doubt because the small caterpillars it feeds on are most abundant on them. ”

“ The brown creepers ascend their vertical or oblique walls in the same way, but seldom, if ever, do anything else than clamber upward, never descending head downward after the fashion of the nuthatches. ”

“ But the creepers I have spoken of make the woods still more curious, and unlike anything at home. First, a creeper drops down from a branch 150 feet high, and then another falls close to it, and the wind blows and twists them together; others grow round it till it takes root, and form a lofty pillar which supports the immense mass of twisting and twining stems above. As we rode along, I saw from many a lofty branch the net-like nests of the corn-bird hanging at the end of long creepers. Those mischievous rascals, the monkeys, are fond of eggs, and will take great pains to get them ”

“ The female lacks the grey on her head, also the rosy tint on her under parts.
This species breeds in suitable localities all over England, Wales, Ireland, and the greater part of Scotland.
It builds its nest in all kinds of low bushes, such as bramble, thorn, briar, and furze, and is so partial to nettles that it is generally known amongst country people as the “Nettle Creeper.” The structure, though deep, is of a very flimsy character, and consists of dead grass stems and horsehair, the latter being used as a lining. ”

“ Five times it made the attempt to capture the creeper, and every time the little bird eluded its enemy by a quick retreat. It was a veritable game of hide and seek, amusing and interesting for the spectator, but to the birds a game of life and death. Life won. I ever have believed thoroughly that the creeper thought out the problem of escape for itself. The last time the shrike went back to its perch the creeper did not show round the trunk again, but instead flew away, keeping the hole of the tree between itself and its foe. ”

“ Now it creeps on the under side of a projecting limb, then again on the top, and although it will explore an entire tree, still it but rarely uses its wings to convey it from one part to another. You will also find that it, like the Woodpecker, endeavors to be on the opposite side to you, and carry on its explorations unseen." Curiosity, however, often seems to get the better of the Creeper, and you will see its light colored breast and sharp little head peep trustfully at you and again vanish from sight. ”

“ Though not a lover of open country, it frequently visits the orchard, where it performs its part in the task of keeping insect life within due bounds. It nests on the ground and hides its domicile so skillfully that it is not often found. None of the warblers are noted as songsters, but the black and white creeper, as I like best to call it, emits a series of thin wiry notes which we may call a song by courtesy only. ”

“ The Black and White Creeper, nowhere an abundant species, is met with in various sections of the country. It occurs in all parts of New England and New York, and has been found in the interior as far north as Fort Simpson. It has been met with on the Pacific coast only at Mazatlan, is common in the Bahamas and most of the West India Islands, generally as a migrant. It has also been found in Texas, in the Indian Territory, and in Mexico, and throughout Central America. In the last-named region Mr. Salvin states it to be pretty equally and generally spread over the whole country. ”

“ He lives entirely on insects, catching them while they are flying in the air.
His song is similar to that of the Summer Yellow-Bird, so common in our gardens among the fruit-trees, but it is more shrill and feeble. The Creeper's song does not differ from it more than the songs of different individuals of the same species may differ. This bird may be seen creeping like a Woodpecker around the branches of trees, feeding upon the grubs and insects that are lodged upon the bark. ”